·
Justice Is Part Of God’s Original And Current
Vision For How Mankind Is To Live.
·
Part Of God’s Vision For Justice Among Humans
Has To Do With Functioning As His Image Bearers.
In this post we continue discussing the importance of
biblical justice by setting forth the remaining points of the narrative, starting
with the third.
3. After The Fall
This Vision For Justice Became Restorative In Nature
The
New City Catechism provides helpful commentary on the effects of the entrance of
sin into the world when it affirms in the answer to question 13 (“Can anyone keep
the law of God perfectly?”): “Since the fall, no mere human has been able to
keep the law of God perfectly, but consistently breaks it in thought, word, and
deed.” In answer 14 we find the reason behind the just-mentioned inability:
“…because of the disobedience of our first parents, Adam and Eve, all of
creation is fallen; we are all born in sin and guilt, corrupt in our nature and
unable to keep God’s law.” Consider the following biblical confirmation:
·
“The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was
great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was
only evil continually.” (Genesis 6:5)
·
“‘None is righteous, no, not one; no one
understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have
become worthless; no one does good, not even one.’” (Rom. 3:11-12)
·
“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in
which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of
disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh,
carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children
of wrath, like the rest of mankind.” (Eph. 2:1-3)
In other words, humans think, act, and relate to God and
each other in ways that are not in keeping with God’s character, in ways that
are unrighteous (Rom. 1:18). Since God created us to glorify him as his image
bearers who create, work in, and give order to this world in righteous ways
(Gen. 1:26-28; 2:15) and since the renewed and restored world in the future
will involve his God-glorifying renewed image bearers creating, working in, and
bringing order in that renewed and restored creation in righteous ways (Rom.
8:30; Rev. 14:13; 21:3-7, 24-26), how we relate to God, to one another, to his
creation, and in relation to self is central to our carrying out his will to
his glory.
To take this a step further then, if we will glorify God in
this life and the life to come, it means we must live righteously in relation
to God and others, as our King wills for us to do. This is one of the reasons
Jesus tells his followers: “Seek first the kingdom of God and his
righteousness…” (Mt. 6:33).
This is why one of the key notes struck in the Bible is that
mankind must move to restore righteousness and justice after the fall, since
the assumption is that naturally there will be unrighteousness and injustice.
Consider the following Bible passages:
·
“For I myself, Yahweh, continually love justice,
hating robbery for burnt offering; and I will give their work in truth, and I
will cut an everlasting covenant with them” (Is. 61:8, my translation). This is
found in a context of the LORD promising
to save his people and bring salvation, liberty, and justice, where there has
been bondage, suffering, and also false worship. So, what is contrasted here
with justice God loves is false worship that involves a profession of faith and
yet the mistreatment of others. God is promising that instead he will transform
his people—making everlasting covenant with them—so that they work in truth.
·
“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because
the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind
up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of
the prison to those who are bound…. I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul
shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he
has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself
like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with
her jewels. For as the earth brings forth its sprouts, and as a garden causes
what is sown in it to sprout up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and
praise to sprout up before all the nations.” (Is. 61:1, 10, 11) Here we see
that in the future God’s servant will work to bring a transformation, a
salvation, that will bring about righteousness—both in a display of God’s
righteousness and God’s people reflecting God-like character toward him and one
another.
·
“Little children, let no one deceive you.
Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. Whoever makes
a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the
beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the
devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in
him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God. By this it
is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil:
whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does
not love his brother.” (1 John 3:7-10) We discover those who truly know Jesus
and are children of God do righteousness—as Jesus is righteous. Those who don’t
are of the devil. We also see here that practical righteousness involves loving
brothers and sisters. See also the preceding context (esp. 2:29, in light of
2:3, 10, 15-17, 23).
One of the reasons that helping and defending the cause of
the poor and needy are so often mentioned along with righteousness and justice
(e.g. Jer. 21:12; 22:15-16) is because the world is sinful, fallen, broken, and
this brings great suffering and bondage. God has acted to restore righteousness
and justice (e.g. Is. 61:1-2, 8)—to help those who are poor and needy, which spiritually
is all of us—and so he calls his people to do the same. Created and recreated
in his image, “because God is a God of justice, a God who loves justice and
hates injustice, his people are to be a people of justice as well. Theirs are to
be actions, relationships, and communities that reflect the character and
values and goals of God.” [1]
God does not save people merely so they have a ticket to
heaven, but also so that they can be restored to God-glorifiers in their
relations to God, self, others, and the creation. God wants us to reflect his
grace and glory in how we treat others. This demands righteousness and justice.
Tony Evans captures well and summarizes what I am affirming when
he writes: “The kingdom agenda is the visible manifestation of the comprehensive rule of God over
very area of life…. Through the establishment of the church along
with His overarching rulership above it, God has created a reflection of his
kingdom in heaven on earth.”[2] he
then adds: “…theology must find a relevant demonstration in society, that the
God of the Bible is not too highly removed that He is not also a God of
everyday miry and mucky realities, and that His heart for the suffering and for
the poor should be our own.”[3]
We must also see the fourth main truth of the justice-filled
biblical narrative from the passages we just cited, as well as additional ones.
4. God’s Vision For Justice Is Restored Fully
Only Through The Righteous One, Jesus Christ
In Luke 4:18 we find out that Jesus is the servant who
fulfills the words of Isaiah 61:1-11. He is the one who brings righteousness
and justice to the world through saved and restored people. In 1 John 3:7-10
John makes the same point, namely that the righteous Savior restores his people
so they practice righteousness (“and justice” is implied).
This is why, when Matthew in chapters 5-7 of his Gospel
gives us a sample of the “gospel of the kingdom” Jesus proclaimed (4:23), he
records that Jesus affirmed that when a person comes to him in grace, realizing
he is poor in spirit and thus becomes part of the kingdom (Mt. 5:3), he will
hunger and thirst after righteousness (5:6), will seek that righteousness and
the kingdom as a priority (6:33), will even sacrifice his life for this
Jesus-exalting righteousness (5:10-12), and the resulting good works will lead
to God’s glory (5:16). Yet, apart from the restoration that comes through Jesus
a person cannot live out the fruits of this righteousness (see John 15:1-16).
Paul also makes this abundantly clear in Ephesians 4:24,
where Paul writes that the “new self,” the new person we are in Christ, is : “created
after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”
This does not mean that a level of justice cannot be
achieved in the world apart from faith in Jesus Christ. It can. Yet, the
justice will never be full and it will always be short-sighted and lacking
apart from him. This is much of the reason why today’s advocates of social
justice, though some of the things for which they advocate are part of biblical
justice, dismiss things that ought to be sought for full justice at the same
time they seek some things that are unjust by God’s standards. What is more, no
person, apart from Christ, will desire anywhere near the same priorities of God
for justice.
The big take-away, then, from this point is that Christians
cannot pit the gospel against justice. They must advocate the propagation and
acceptance of the gospel at the same time they advocate for justice. Both go
together. Advocating for involvement in the public square without the gospel is
incomplete and, at the same time, advocating for the gospel without the
resulting focus on the public square is also incomplete.
Yet, we must remember that we will never see full and
perfect justice even among saved and transformed people this side of heaven,
because we will not be free from sin in this world. This leads to the fifth and
final main truth of the biblical narrative in regard to justice.
5. God’s Vision For Restored Justice Will
Be Fully Realized Only At The Future Coming Of Jesus Christ And In The New
Heaven And New Earth
Because we will not be perfect in this world (James 3:2; 1
John 1:8; Heb. 12:23), perfect justice will not be realized this side of heaven,
even though lives transformed by Christ should live much more justly toward
others. This is why Peter (2 Pt. 3:13) writes: “But according to his promise we
are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.”
The result is that we live with a tension. On the one hand,
we should seek and do justice, realizing this is a way of glorifying God. And
we should see justice grow. On the other hand, we will not live in perfect
justice, nor will we ever experience perfect justice in this world. God at
times will even use injustice to change and grow us (Rom. 5:1-5; 2 Cor.
4:17-18; James 1:2-3, 12).
We must remember that the ability to pursue greater justice
is already here in Jesus and yet full perfect justice is not yet here. It
awaits the future coming of Christ. Any approach that has sought to force the
issue and set up a utopia (such as with communism) has usually devolved into
even greater injustice.
Conclusion
We have now seen through both an examination of passages
that deal directly with righteousness and justice and through looking at the
overall narrative of Scripture just what justice is. “Justice identifies the
moral standard by which God measures human conduct…[his own character as
reflected in his moral will]…. Biblical justice, therefore, is the equitable and impartial
application of the rule of God’s moral law in society…the
understanding and application of God’s moral law within the social realm,”[4]
with the understanding that this justice is what is best for all.
We also have seen how important justice is. It is not
something that the church can ignore. In fact, the sense that we have picked up
on is that in a pursuit for justice we should live for a great cause, the cause
of meeting the physical and spiritual needs of others all for God’s glory.
What we have left to do is to unpack several specific topics
and find out how to pursue biblical justice in each.
We will do this in our remaining blog posts and sermons.
Joyfully Pursuing Justice With You,
Tom
[1]
Roy, “Embracing Social Justice:” 8.
[3] Ibid.,
195.
[4]
All but the bracketed clause and the last clause of this definition is taken
from Tony Evans, Oneness
Embraced: Reconciliation, The Kingdom, And How We Are Stronger Together (Chicago: Moody,
2011), 260.
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